A Little History Of The Island Of "Forte Mazzorbo"

The Mazzorbo fortress is one of the 34 little islands of the lagoon not considering the greater urbanized ones and the coast-lines.
It was one in a system of fortification built on XIX and XX century by Austrians and Italians.
The defensive system was started by the French who fortified S.Erasmo and built a little fortress at Mazzorbo on 1807, behind the present one. It was then advanced in the present position and enlarged and strengthened by the Austrians and Italians becouse all the dydtem guarded the nord-east area toward the fishing valleys and terra-firma eaves, watching over with its artillery the Sile and the Piave rivers flowing into Adriatic sea.
This system was to have a great importance on 1914/18 when after the Caporetto retreat the battle front line was estabilished on the Piave river very near Venice.

The austro-italian fortress was built over the ex-friary of S.Eufemia demolished on 1837/38.
The Mazzorbo Fortress, not so big, is made-up in its present form, by a lined up battery with six artillery stationating, situated over the casemate partially interred on the west side.
The casemate is formed by a sequence of barrel vaulted rooms, aligned along a service corridor for the storage of munitions, which were transferred to the artillery stationing by way of mechanical lifting gears.  
Nothing exist now of the artillery pieces, only some marks on the emplacements,but they had to have a considerable caliber and range, given that during the caporetto retreat (1917) they were able to fire over S. Donà di Piave  and the Cortellazzo marbour, many kilometres away, with great accuracy.

During the 1940/45 war, the artillery stamonig were probably replaced by anti-aircraft batteries, of wich only emplacements remain.
This fortess was operational till the end of the secon world war 1940/45, then it was turned in a summer health resort. After that, in the very first years of the postwar period, it hosted families of evacuated inly to be completely quitted over the next yers.
On 1981 the venetian municipality gave the island on concession to the scouts of the venetian section of the A.G.E.S.C.I.

Shown here it’s as we found it

   

After three years of toiling, they were able to make utilizable the whole outdoor area of the fortess and at least part of the indoor’s one.
On 2001 (after 20 years of preservation / main senace due our care, the scouts) . The venetian municipality granted us an extraordinary money contribution for the recostruction of the fortess (exterior plasters, insides, floorings, showers and so on).

Further photos and documents can be found on the historical archives of the island.

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